There was shock at the Daily Telegraph after Max Hastings announced
he was quitting as editor. Hastings was returning to the Evening
Standard, where he had worked for 10 years, as editor. Hastings was
credited with modernising the Telegraph and making it less of a party
organ for the Tories. He had also kept the Telegraph as the
best-selling quality paper despite aggressive cover price-cutting by
The Times. Hastings was made editor of the Telegraph following the
Conrad Black takeover in 1986.
Telegraph keeps it in the family
Speculation on Hastings’ successor at the Daily Telegraph
centred on claims that Black had offered the job to the Daily Mail’s
Paul Dacre. In the end the job stayed within the Telegraph family when
Charles Moore switched from editing the Sunday Telegraph to taking over
at the daily. Associated’s editor-in-chief Sir David English was seen
as playing a vital role in holding on to Dacre, who was said to have
had his salary increased to nearly £500,000 a year. English told Press
Gazette: “We are very pleased to have kept Paul. He is the Daily Mail
and I’m very glad he was persuaded to stay for love of the paper.”
Picture use was recipe for trouble
Belfast photographer Crispin Rodwell was suing a book publisher
after his iconic picture “Time for Peace” was manipulated and used on
the front of a charity cookbook called Recipes for Peace. An angry
Rodwell told Press Gazette: “It is a blatant copyright infringement and
the whole effect of the picture has been changed by this unauthorised
jiggering around.” The picture was part of a portfolio that had led
Rodwell to be named Nikon Photographer of the Year. The Nikon judges
described his picture as “possibly the image of the decade”.
Police accused of foul play over Crimewatch exclusive
Regional editors were increasingly concerned that the BBC Crimewatch
programme was being given exclusive material by the police. The latest
row involved a Crimewatch exclusive that Grantham murder victim Julie
Pacey had had her watch stolen. Nick Woodhead, editor of the Grantham
Journal, told Press Gazette: “I think it is policing by television. It
seems bizarre to me that a vital piece of evidence can be withheld for
so long. What is particularly galling is the timing of it – it purely
seems to fit with television scheduling rather than good policing.” In
a statement to Press Gazette Det Supt Roger Billingsley, who was
leading the murder hunt, said one of the conditions of the item
appearing on the programme was that details should not be released
locally until after transmission. “I accept that the decision
effectively contravenes our open policy with all the media,” he said.
“But I hope local and regional media, who have been so helpful to us on
the case, will understand why I agreed to abide by the Crimewatch
condition.”
Newspaper office torched in “vendetta” attack
The office of the Western Gazette was the target of an arson attack when a firebomb was hurled through a window.
The fire caused an estimated £100,000 of damage. Police and staff on
the weekly believed the attack was organised by “criminal elements”
with a vendetta against the paper because of stories it had run.
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